Presentation that was killed off way too soon

Spare a thought for the March-September 2002 idents from Channel 5. Presumably made as a stopgap before the big 'five' relaunch in September, I thought these idents were great, probably the best set of idents the channel had had since its launch, and much better than the tacky celebrity/personality idents that preceded them.

With a couple of new editions, Rhythm and Movement could have lasted another year. I've said many times, idents today really lack a good sonic logo - both BBC One and Two at the time had really recognisable audio.

I remember reading that stings were made for the package but never got used. Anyone know anything about that?

I also just stumbled across this video that I've not seen before.


Back on topic, BBC News 24's 2007 look was much short-lived. The music was great, the graphics looked very swish and the channel was at its strongest, truly based in the heart of the newsroom.


It was a shame it was stuck in N6 for the following five years with rather unimaginative graphics and stupidly losing its 24.


Edit: Having just submitted in the other thread a vote for 2015 Channel 4 as the worst idents, I have to say Channel 4's 2004 set was absolutely fantastic and could have gone on for many more years, with new additions on the same concept.

To me, it is the 2008 ITN/ITV News at Ten look from the second resurrection of News at Ten. it was sadly short-lived as an major rebrand at ITV News from November 2009 put an end to it and again unified News at Ten with the other ITV News bulletins. The rearrangement of "The Awakening" was excellent and dramatic and and the graphics were impressive and was an excellent update/remake to the 1988 News at Ten opening, Had the 2009 major rebrand of ITV News did not affect News at Ten, then these titles would have still been used.

I would agree there with News at Ten. Very impressive but probably the most short lived.

Certain regional news programmes have been in a Similar position where impressive new looks are abandoned soon after due to a corporate rebrand

See also:

Ugh, that was so slick compared to the Gill Sans monstrosity in '08.

You see that's the sort of studio size/set that would've suited BBC Breakfast better.

Just me that’s not keen? The text reflection, cheesy American ‘live news your news’, clash of the blue set with red/black titles?

I agree with others on pres put out to pasture too early though...News at Ten ‘08, Carlton ‘99, News 24 flags ‘97 are all good examples.

I’ll throw this in the mix though - BBC Arabic from 2008. Great music and visuals before it all soon got binned in favour of David Lowe and Lambie-Nairn, who I’m normally a fan of but not sure it was better in this case.

Looked excellent back in the early days of the current BBC Arabic service and still does today, from a visual and thematic standpoint.

There's no doubt that it deserved more than a year's worth of use, but uniformity of the BBC News brand comes to mind.

Looking back at BBC Arabic's first presentation package, part of it would make for a decent family ident for the BBC network of channels.

Well with the current level of news channel output, it'd probably be misleading!

Also from my own word, the BBC Sport ident (and its closing version) from 1997 was also short-lived, only lasting 1997-1999 when BBC Sport axed the "globe and rings" idea for unique idents that were fast-paced, emphasised movement and action. The CGI on the final version of the "globe and rings" symbol for BBC Sport was pretty excellent and impressive (it even holds up well), and the arrangement of the familiar BBC Sport theme of the first era of the "globe and rings" look was pretty excellent as well.


(BBC Sport Ident is at 1:33 on this video)

I was extremely disappointed and annoyed when they dropped the bbc arabic presentation, it looked so good and worked very well, shame it wasn’t broadcast in HD, but the presentation package was way too good.